exciting opportunities that might bring. for example, rachel maddow herself recently showed the staff of the rachel maddow show that she has a talent that has no discernable value in the marketplace. >> what was your other trick that you do? >> this one? >> can do you armpit farts? this one. >> that one upsets me. >> it's just the sound of one hand. >> it doesn't matter. >> i have always -- i have always been impressed by rachel maddow when i watched the show. and now having tried to host the show myself, i'm beyond impressed by what she does here every night. it's more like awe. now that i know of her ability to make the sound of one hand clapping, i am bowled over. best new thing in the world today. rachel maddow will be back for a special new year's eve edition of the show. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell.

>> welcome to "the last word" holiday party where we will choose our person of the year and a whole lot more. >> he's the worst republican in the country. >> i think it's about class warfare. >> you chose to start the debate with it. >> i'm the tortoise. i just take one step at a time. >> romney will be the nominee. >> republicans are waging war on women. >> is mitt romney from jupiter? >> do i believe the supreme

court should overturn roe versus wade? yes. >> i love you, women. >> back in my day, they used bear aspirin for contraceptives. >> the gals put it between their knees, it wasn't that costly. >> a fascinating read. >> i know the debate over this law. >> democrats thought they would lose. the republicans thought they would win. >> i think roberts found the answer. >> when we look back, we'll be better off. >> governor romney's caught on tape moment. >> that shocking tape from romney. >> they will never take responsibility for their lives. >> i'm speaking off the cuff. >> if i were a rich man. >> people want to know who will win who will score the punches.

>> presidential candidates battening down the hatches. >> i'm sorry, jim, i will stop the subsidy to pbs. >> i like pbs. i love big bird. >> a zinger every minute. >> brought us binders of women. >> we also have fewer horse and bayonets. >> horses and bayonets. >> oh yeah ♪ ♪ >> i just called president obama to congratulate him. >> i congratulated him and paul ryan on a hard-fought campaign. >> i pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation. >> we are an american family, and we rise or fall together. the task of perfecting our union moving forward. >> tonight, we are celebrating the year in the news, the winners, the losers, the person of the year. and we will hand out the donald trump award to the person who has embarrassed himself or herself the most this year. all right, let's start with the

most valuable player of the 2012 campaign, alex wagner, the most valuable player? >> in my book, it's david plouffe, you saw the beginnings, with dean, and obama. this will change the way people organize and campaign. >> krystal? the most valuable player? >> i have to say we don't know exactly his identity or her identity, but probably the waiter who placed the camera at the mitt romney fund-raiser and captured the 47% comments, which i think showed a lot of people their concerns about mitt romney and the fact he really was not there for all of america. that he didn't understand the problems that average americans were facing. >> let's listen to that little moment of video history. the 47%. >> there are 47% of the people who will vote for the president,

there are 47% of people who are with him. who believe that they are victims. who believe that the government has the responsibility to care for them. who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. and so my job is not to worry about these people. i'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility. >> a very valuable comment. >> i am going to go with bill clinton. >> one speech? >> it was 20 years in the making, the story of the speech, for the first 15 years, republicans treated bill clinton that he was the worst thing that ever happened to american politics. the villain in chief, and after he left the white house, there was the moment in 2008, when republicans decided wait a minute, no, bill clinton is this by-gone symbol of an era, in good government, moderation, and they sang his praises for four years. they set him up as the good democrat against obama's bad

democrat. and then what happens? the good democrat steals the show, vouches for the bad democrat, and disarmed what a lot of republicans were saying about barack obama. >> you have made a reasonable argument. chris hayes, the mvp of the campaign? >> i think the enviable one was rick perry, who made the step of going full anti-out immigrant zealotry. >> it totally destroyed rick, he dispatched rick perry on the attack of the $100,000 subsidy of the illegals, which allowed undocumented students to go to the university and pay in-state tuition. romney destroyed rick perry on that issue. but in that rhetoric, he sealed his fate in the general election with the latinos, who he got blown out and provided a huge margin in the swing states. >> that is a good point, my

choice, of course, the anonymous videographer, who captured the 47%, which is why we happen to have the tape. >> you guys worked that out? >> why it happened to be ready. now, the best move of 2012. what was the best move of 2012? >> this is really hard, because some part of me as a political junky thinks the best move is the crazy thing. and for that, i would give it to mitt romney actually moving across the stage and grabbing rick perry, this kind of physical debate style he also had that revealed him to be crazy and not driven by the same things that most humans are driven by. but sort of the competitive work force bot. but i think at end of the day we keep going back to this 47% video, i was going to hold it -- >> you can use it as much as you want. it's everything. >> the release of that. and the timing of that changed the contours of the race forever. >> and we don't really know who is responsible for that timing. krytal, the best move. >> the best move, goes to the

point about immigration, the president, when he gave a press conference announcing he would halt deportations on young, undocumented immigrants. it really closed off a path for mitt romney and trapped him over there on the right in self-deportation, rick perry land. he was not able to make any pivot back to the center to try to appeal to latino voters, to try to strike a more reasonable position on immigration, because the president basically cut him off at the pass. so i think that was a very smart strategic move. >> it was a big moment. steve? >> i'll look at the step down at the senate level here. the smartest and best move of the year, was claire mccaskill's move in missouri saying i want to run against todd aiken, i think he's the one i can beat this year. she quietly helped him get that nomination. the rest is history. not only did it help her race, effect her race and help her race that she had no business

winning, but there was obviously a ripple effect that helped democrats nationally. >> chris, the best move of the year? >> i think the best move, joe biden, who answered a question honestly without premeditation and frankly in his "meet the press" interview with david gregory when he was asked about marriage equality. and i think all the reporting afterward, was this a trial balloon, was this pre-planned? no, no, no, joe biden was asked a question and answered with a moral legitimacy and a truthfulness that had these remarkable effects that it pushed the president to come clean about his personal evolution, i think that personally made a difference in the campaign. >> my best move of the campaign, we actually have a little visual assist on this, "washington post" says obama and his allies spent less on advertising than romney and his allies, but got far more in the number of ads broadcast in visibility in key markets and in targeting critical democratic groups, such as the working class and young

working voters in swing states. what they did with tv advertising, the specificity of t knowing where they were going was something we have never seen before. the worst move of the 2012 campaign? >> i have two things on this. one is, i think my answer is choosing paul ryan to be the vice presidential nominee. just because a, it never gave him the lift that anybody thought it would. he effectively neutered mitt romney, whether it was the stuff with todd aken, or the ryan budget, there was no way to run away from it. >> alex and i were on the same wavelength, picking paul ryan was the worst move, and not only for those reasons, but mitt romney went on to lose wisconsin badly. there were questions after paul ryan's debate performance against joe biden of whether he was really ready to step on the stage and be the number two. and i think a lot of people who were thinking about maybe going with romney, not only were they

uncomfortable with how far to the right he was, how extreme his positions on social security and medicare, but they also just felt like he was not quite ready for prime time. so i think it was a very bad strategic move for them. >> steve, the worst move? >> let me come at it from a slightly different angle. >> you always do. you don't have to preface that. >> from the standpoint of voters who -- you know, i think to make an informed choice, what do you have? you have the debates, we had jim lehrer as the moderator, for the 96th time. he moderated the first debate, the designated domestic policy debate. you could have climate change or gay marriage or birth control. all of this stuff. all of that was ignored, we talked about simpson bowles, the deficit reduction and affordable care act. >> with no explanation of what they were for the average person. >> it was sort of the inside the beltway debate, and you get one positive debate for the entire fall campaign.

you open things up to new voices and fresh perspectives, to broader perspectives. i don't mean to pick on jim lehrer too much, but really, enough of it. >> chris, the worst move? >> the worst move, the decision by both the obama campaign and the not so surprising decision by romney and debate moderators to never raise climate change for the first time since 1988. if you go back to to the tape when lloyd benson and dan quayle were asked about it, they both said, yeah, that will be a problem, we should do something about it. here we are, 24 years later and it doesn't even get a mention in any of the debates. >> i have another video assist, the worst move, the worst decision of the campaign was to do what you're about to see at the republican convention. >> oh. >> i just wondered -- all of these promises, and then i wondered about -- you know, when -- the -- what do you want me to tell romney?

i can't tell him to do that. can't do that to himself. you're absolutely crazy. >> up next, the rising star of 2013. and the best and worst political theater of the presidential campaign. and of course, biggest winner, biggest loser, person of the year. and the donald trump award. [ laughter ] smoke? nah, i'm good. ♪ [ male announcer ] every time you say no to a cigarette, you celebrate a little win. nicoderm cq, the patch with time release smart control technology that acts fast and helps control cravings all day long. ♪

quit one day at a time with nicoderm cq.

the rising political star of 2013, chris hayes, who will that be? >> massachusetts senator elizabeth warren, i think it is not an easy thing to do what she did. you know, she was a star on this network and among progressives, but to go run in statewide

office, particularly in massachusetts, i think she will be absolutely a force in massachusetts. >> it pains me to say it, but this is going to be the year when corey booker, he is either going to run for governor -- >> krystal, the rising star. >> new congresswoman from hawaii, the youngest woman in the house, also the first hindu-american woman in congress, combat veteran, really an amazing woman. >> alex, the rising star? >> i asked you to go with chris first because i thought it would provide me with some cover. i was going to say elizabeth warren, and it is true, i'll tell you why -- >> do you want to give up going first begaagain? >> i will go first next time. i will agree with alex wagner, not chris hayes. alex wagner, we'll be back with more of "the last word" holiday party. stay with us. [ male announcer ] it's that time of year again.

time for citi price rewind. because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. and if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. just use your citi card and register your purchase online. have a super sparkly day! ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. citi price rewind. start saving at citi.com/pricerewind.

the literati send out their minions to do their bidding. washington cannot tolerate threat from outsiders who may disrupt their comfortable world. the firefight started, a lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. but out of the billowing smoke

and dust of tweets and trivia emerge emerged gingrich. >> that, of course, was the best actual political theater of 2012, tony award winner john lithgow's reading of a newt gingrich press release, i think it was. but let's do the best political theater of 2012, and we'll now start with alex wagner again, because she's demanned that sde start. >> it is a contractual obligation. it was the best, because i couldn't believe it was happening in mid-august. mitt romney took to the white board to explain what he was doing with medicare. which, in and of itself was a hoax, but the notion that this man would have this horribly stage-managed moment in an effort to show he was all about business. he cemented every narrative out there.

>> i don't know if the mikes can pick it up, but the drinks are being spilled there over at that table. krystal ball, the best political theater. >> well, i also have a newt gingrich moment when he turned questions about him asking his former wife for an open marriage, parlayed that into a debate moment, a huge applause moment in the debate, and then parlayed that into an actual victory in the south carolina primary. that was an incredible moment. >> we happen to have that video cued up. >> she says you asked her to enter into an open marriage, would you like to take some time to respond to that? >> no, but i will. i think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country,

harder to attract decent people to run for public office. and i am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate with a topic like that. >> that was obviously my choice, too, for best political theater. that is why we had that ready. steve, best political theater. >> and i remember the favorite thing about that episode, it turned out in the reporting afterwards when they went to commercial break, newt gingrich went up to john king, no hard feelings. >> there shouldn't have been. it was very helpful to him. >> my favorite moment in the final presidential debate, when mitt romney thought he landed the killer blow against barack obama on libya, failure to call it a terrorist attack, it was that line where obama knew exactly what was happening, exactly the trap romney had, and he said governor, proceed.

>> we don't have that queued up. >> i think the democratic convention was done, compared to the republican convention where i thought it was a disaster, i thought it back fired. i specifically thought that bill clinton's speech, was political theater at its best, in so far that he was genuinely edified. he didn't do the cheap and easy thing which was to do something surfacey, he actually went into the weeds of the detail of the policy and explained them and it actually made for great theater. >> worst political theater. >> i can't believe we haven't mentioned this before, herman cain's entire campaign. he was never actually running. it was theatrics. he had command of his audience, but at the end of the day, it was theater. >> i just wanted to point out

this is water. >> we are the water team. >> so worst political theater, i would say after the 47% comments came out and mitt romney decided to do this hurried press conference where he looked frazzled, the hair was a little askew, where he really had nothing to say and essentially dug the hole for himself deeper, i think that was the worst political theater of the campaign, other than clint eastward. >> the mitt romney campaign on the ropes, rick santorum has pulled even in the polls, mitt romney says we're going to turn it out with an economic speech. they went out to the detroit lions football stadium, 65,000 seats, and it was about 0.0002% full. >> the worst political theater was the members of the president's campaign in the spin room after the first debate in denver. very, very, very gamely attempting -- attempting to put a happy face on it. >> for me, it was a particular moment in the herman cain campaign. >> i like that you're agreeing with me. this is good for you. >> it was kind of when he had

stuff twirling around in his head, and we're going to look at that right now. >> so you agreed with president obama on libya, or not? >> okay, libya. president obama supported the uprising, correct? i do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason. no, that is a different one. i got to go back to see -- i got to go back and see -- got all this stuff twirling around in my head. >> oh, we miss him so badly. we're going to go back with more

of the biggest surprise of 2012, person of the year, and the donald trump award coming up. so, this board gives me rates for progressive direct and other car insurance companies? yes. but you're progressive, and they're them. yes. but they're here. yes. are you...? there? yes. no. are you them? i'm me. but those rates are for... them. so them are here. yes! you want to run through it again? no, i'm good. you got it? yes. rates for us and them -- now that's progressive. call or click today. is bigger than we think ... sometimelike the flu.fer from with aches, fever and chills- the flu's a really big deal. so why treat it like it's a little cold? there's something that works differently than over-the-counter remedies.

prescription tamiflu attacks the flu virus at its source. so don't wait. call your doctor right away. tamiflu is prescription medicine for treating the flu in adults and children one year and older whose flu symptoms started within the last two days. before taking tamiflu tell your doctor if you're pregnant, nursing. have serious health conditions, or take other medicines. if you develop an allergic reaction, a severe rash, or signs of unusual behavior, stop taking tamiflu and call your doctor immediately. children and adolescents in particular may be at an increased risk of seizures, confusion or abnormal behavior. the most common side effects are mild to moderate nausea and vomiting. the flu comes on fast, so ask your doctor about tamiflu. prescription for flu.

and the sorry to see you go category, chris? >> legendary union baseball president marvin miller, died

this year at 95. i got the pleasure of interviewing him last year when i was working my book. totally and completely revolutionized major league baseball and sports, essentially owners could basically pay players nothing into the modern free agent system in which players can actually recoup a fair market value for about value they add to owners. >> steve, sorry to see you go. >> you probably haven't heard of him, joe early from massachusetts, he was my kind of politician and my kind of congressman. he cared about that city, it is a tough city, people ignore, he lost his career in a trumped up fake scandal that rick santorum and john boehner created in the '90s, a house banking scandal. he lost his career, he lost his reputation, he was put on trial, exonerated, but he spent the last 20 years unappreciated. and he died this year. and i think he deserves a little recognition. joe early. >> phyllis diller.

trail blazing comedian. >> i have two. different men, their losses will be felt in different worlds. >> but they rose to fame in the same era, and i'm very sorry to see go whitney houston. we're going to be back with more of our last word holiday show. ♪

mine was earned off vietnam in 1968. over the south pacific in 1943. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection, and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve.

♪ welcome back to "the last word," holiday party. our new category is the biggest surprise of 2012. karen finney, what was the biggest surprise of 2012. >> that we were able to call the election around 11:00. >> you know, i wasn't surprised

by that. >> i actually thought that that would happen. by the time we got to california, closing time we would know. >> i really thought it would be a much bigger mess, and i didn't think the president would be able to win without us having a debacle in florida, and thankfully we didn't. >> joy reed, what was the big surprise? >> the big surprise was that mitt romney chose paul ryan as his running mate. he is the right guy? but as a democrat, secretly, i was like oh please, pick paul ryan, i didn't think he would do it. >> there were so many reasons not to pick him. >> there were so many reasons not to pick him, but ideal logically, and as a democrat it was the perfect thing, because it crystallized all the things they didn't like about mitt romney this distaste for the ordinary person, this 47%, voucherizing medicare, all that was crystallizing in one person, he picked him for the running mate, i was surprised.

>> the big surprise, something way behind scenes, the debate commission makes the rules, they are usually secret. this year they leaked, first on time and gawker.com. you could read these rules. it turns out the debate rules restrict the moderator from doing any fact-checking or any commenting or response to the answers the candidates give. and we never knew it before. because it is secret between the candidates and commission. it is crooked, and we learned that. next cycle, i think there will be pressure to change the rules. >> i hate the rules, and did rewrites on the show about the rules. my big the surprise of 2012 was president obama's perform man in the first debate. i kind of went -- what? it didn't completely start to seat belt on me until we were about 50 minutes in.

you're waiting for the engines to start. it didn't quite -- >> it's going -- it's going -- >> it was amazing. >> i think they were so confident many their math in the obama campaign that at the didn't go into that debate taking it all that seriously. and i think he thought why am i here with this guy? >> it is that incumbent thing, the president thinking, oh, i'm so out of shape at this. >> he didn't take eye contact seriously, either, he was sort of -- yeah. >> now, here -- this comes to the annual donald trump award. he has won this award for the last 20 years on the show. and so it has been named after him. it is the most embarrassing, the person who has embarrassed himself or herself the most in the year 2012. so for you, karen, this year, the donald trump award goes to? >> oh, i have to say herman cain, in that interview, and he couldn't remember -- >> and that video we just saw. >> maybe a close second with governor perry, with trying to remember the three agencies,

ouch, ouch, ouch, it just hurt, it hurt. >> and the difference was, perry actually was running for president, and cain was running for fame. joy? the donald trump award. >> well, i'm going to go with john sununu, he was the worst surrogate. >> it is so good to be rid of him. >> he was everything that was wrong with the republican party's brand. surly, racially insensitive, ugly, just awful. and he just kept talking. >> the donald trump award goes to who this year? >> my trump award goes to karl rove, on election night, on politics, election night he had no idea what was going on. and on policy, this was the year when we really saw the public turn against his enduring legacy of trying to write state legislation into the constitution against people who happen to be gay. the public and the republican

party is turning against that, and that will be his legacy sadly for him on this legislative issue. >> and for years, i've said the donald trump award has gone to donald trump. and once again i will give it to donald trump because i find it impossible to outdo donald trump on embarrassing yourself. there are a couple of people who tried, they tried really hard to outdo donald trump. let's take a look, for example, at todd aken. >> first of all, from what i understand from doctors, that is really rare, if it is a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> and just when you thought he had that whole jurisdiction wrapped up, there came richard murdoch, who we should take a look at. >> i think when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that god intended to happen. >> they are legitimate runners

up for the donald trump award. >> he sounds ill. he sounds like he's not feeling well on top of it. >> he shunouldn't have been. >> there were a number of male, mostly male republican legislators in state legislatures across the country who made similar comments, who can remain nameless, but let's give them a little hat tip about being that stupid about women. >> how about those who wrote the republican party platform this year, they completely agreed with them, none of them could escape it. >> all right, coming up, the person who we are not sorry to see go. also, we'll pick the person of the year, the biggest winner and loser, stay with us. share everything. share brotherly love.

share one up's. mom ? mom ? the share everything plan. lets your family share a pool of data across 10 devices with unlimited talk and text. now get a lucid by lg, free. time for citi price rewind. because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. and if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. just use your citi card and register your purchase online. have a super sparkly day! ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. citi price rewind. start saving at citi.com/pricerewind.

and now for the not sorry to see you go category, who are you not sorry to see go?

>> allen west. >> you took my answer right off -- okay. >> now people know this is real. >> all right, allen west, and joy, who was your runner-up? >> i guess my runner-up has to be dick morris, i think we're rid of him, he is sort of like a bad penny. >> maybe he is hibernating. >> really? >> yeah. i think there's more. >> maybe he can just go away. >> that's a bit optimistic. >> karen? >> i think i'm going to have to go with jim demint. >> and he is going to disappear, this nonsense, this is a better job than -- going to go run a stupid phone bank in d.c. yeah, it's actually kind of great to get rid of him. the people who are not sorry to see him go are the republicans in senate who he was driving crazy. democrats in the senate liked having a nut like that to paint the whole party. >> can i give a runner-up? the tea party, the funny hats,

the teabags hanging from their hats, and the obnoxious rallies. >> they have functionally disappeared. they had really nothing to say in the so-called fiscal cliff crisis. all right. we'll be back for picks of person of the year, biggest winners, biggest losers. stay with us.

welcome back to "the last word," holiday party. it is now time for the person of the year award. who is the person of the year? >> i was thinking it is a night for celebration, but it is also a night to honor people. and for me, when you look at 2012, it would be congresswoman gabrielle giffords, she resigned this year after a heroic battle dealing with the gunshot wounds that she experienced. we obviously keep her in our thoughts and our prayers. but she was also a leader, and believed in public policy. and we're going to have to look as we go forward into the next year over how we deal with this enduring problem of gun violence in our country. >> joy reed, your person of the year? >> i picked for the person of the year, the american voter. >> it does sound corny. >> it is corny, you know, the reason i said it -- >> you said a group, you didn't say the country. >> it is a group. >> it is very "time magazine".

>> i know, it is, never in my lifetime have i seen people have to endure so many hoops, obstruction. seven hours in line. i have never seen it so obvert, you know, whether it was in ohio -- >> all right. you won me over. >> you know, people literally fought against the right to vote this term, this cycle, more than i have ever seen in my life. i felt like i was back in the '60s, or '50s, and in florida, when they passed legislation to prevent black voters specifically from getting to vote. and preventing people from being able to vote early. i thought people's resilience, and resolve, i met people, older people who had disabilities saying i'm staying in line if it has to be all day. i am very proud of them. it's corny but -- >> no it's not. you've beaten me up on it. >> and the images were powerful. >> karen? >> mine was malala.

she was so courageous. very me minded us during a ridiculous election season about things that were far more important, and particularly at a time when republicans were trying to tell women that this war on women, it is all in our heads. i think it is a good reminder that what women have fought for, continue for fight for. >> she was shot in the head by the pakistani taliban, because she wants education for girls. we have video of malala yousufzai. let's talk about that. >> i have a new dream, so i thought that i must be a politician to serve this country. >> why did you change this dream. >> because there are so many crises in our country, i want to remove these crisis and serve my country. >> and you notice there is a little person of the year bug on there, that's because she's my choice. krystal ball, your person of the year, you can just say i agree.

you know you can. >> i have to go with president obama. mine is corny, too. he really survived a lot of adversity, so -- >> i don't think you have to make the case for the president being the person of the year. >> alex wagner, the person of the year. >> i'm really boring, but i would echo krystal, because he purported himself with kindness, and integrity. >> steve, you're the tie-breaker, there are two for malala over here -- >> i'm not breaking a tie, going out on my own, family feud style. john roberts, supreme court justice, the height of the election season, immense pressure from the conservative group, and peer pressure from the court, he said, you know what? the affordable care act, it stands. >> all right, coming up, the biggest winner and loser, a different concept than person of the year. you get that? think about this. we'll be right back with more of

"the last word" holiday party. biggest winner.

♪ welcome back to "the last word" holiday party. we are now going to pick our biggest winner and biggest loser of 2012. and i'm going to break the routine, i'm going to go first. one reason why i'm going to go first on biggest loser is because my choice is wicked obvious.

there is no sense waiting around for the big suspense of my decision. i am choosing mitt romney, and i'm doing that because the man lived his entire life for this year to be the republican nominee. his father told him, go out and get rich, mitt. and then run for office. you know, when you can afford to, so he followed his father's plan. he ignored a lot of what his father actually thought about governing and politics and things, you know, things like letting people see your tax returns, 12 years, which his father did, all that stuff. and so mitt romney having lived his life, built his life, to be able to do this, run his campaign is now at home tonight with his tax returns. he is the biggest loser in america. karen finney, biggest loser. >> biggest loser, anybody who

was taking their cues from the romney campaign polls in that last couple of weeks and was out there talking about 300 electoral votes, that was really fun. >> joy, your biggest loser? >> it was close, paul ryan, being associated with the biggest loser is almost as bad as being the loser. >> nothing worse than losing on the vice presidential slot. there's no future for that. >> this time, it was a tie between him and rupert murdoch. his entire news was exposed, fox news was literally exposed on election night. their entire narrative on the campaign proved to be false, and now their credibility was in tatters, and then you had the phone-hacking scandal, so he is just a mess right now, a tie, slight edge over ryan. >> the biggest loser, a long-time coming. when i first started to work for senator cantwell, and people discussed things, saying you can't do that because of "the

pledge." i didn't know what it was. and the pledge is slowly, grover norquist, anti-tax pledge, which is no way to run a business or the government. revenues are important if you understand a balance sheet. and that thing has haunted us for a long time and is slowly losing. >> krystal ball, the biggest loser. >> mine has helped in part make joy's rupert murdoch which is karl rove. people thought if they didn't like him, he was very smart. he exposed himself to not be very smart on election night over at that other network. >> we only have two people left who may please me by choosing donald trump. alex wagner, the biggest loser of 2012? >> donald trump -- >> correct, correct, you get the ipad. >> i hate to disappoint you, it

is shelden addelson -- the house is always supposed to win, and the house lost big time. >> great. that was great. >> steve, biggest loser. >> i want an ipad, but the big loser, the name for generations, the gold standard in public opinion polling -- gallugallup. gallup, all of october, on election day said romney has an advantage, going to win this, and people are going to look more skepticalally at the gallup polls going forward. >> let's see if nate silver comes up in the biggest winner category over there. biggest winner, again, i'm going to go first. because once again, i couldn't be more obvious. i just think the guy who wins the presidential election is really, you know, by every measure the biggest winner. and he did it with this crushing unemployment rate on his administration, which he did

everything he could possibly do to fix. but he didn't have it politically fixed by the time he went into re-election, he got reelected with an unemployment number that everybody says is impossible. and so that credit goes to president obama, biggest winner of 2012, for me. >> i am going to go with the home team, and say msnbc, because we kicked the other network's butt. >> she gets the ipad. she gets the ipad. >> well you previewed mine, i was going to say nate silver, because i think math was a huge winner this year. he looked at the numbers. he looked at the polls properly. he understood gallup and the polls. the demographics just did it this year. and the people who understood that if 28% was going to be the minority, and if president obama could pull that, he was going to win. nate silver is a big winner, his detractors look pretty silly right now. >> ari, the biggest winner of

2012? >> i want to pick up on joy's flavor, because you put her on blast tonight for being corny. i want to be corny with you now and say government intervention in our economy was the biggest winner. barack obama came into the office after tremendous elite failure, fundamental distrust of what our government can do. if you boil it down, he outlined a series of proposals that intervened in our markets, the health care market, the insurance market, the car market, wall street with regulation and stimulus. and each one of those things has worked. he won over the public, because they were skeptical. you said he won, i am saying he renewed a faith in doing what we need to get out of this recession. >> krystal ball, the biggest winner? >> i was tempted to also go with barack obama, but since you took it and i chose him for person of the year, i will say claire mccaskill. she was written off. nobody thought she could win

that seat in missouri, and she won the crazy candidate jackpot. and was very smart and strategic on how she parlayed that into a victory. she is a big winner by being back in the senate. >> alex wagner? >> hillary rodham clinton, well-positioned for 2016. the term teflon don usually goes to a man, she is the teflon madonna. >> very well put. >> i want to piggyback, the biggest winner, the biggest loser of george romney, who exited with his reputation in tatters, a couple of generations ago. and his son, by failing to live up to the father's example in so many glaring ways, revived and brought back up the reputation, the history's estimation of george romney comes up in a better place than it was before this election. >> that is a good one, i like that. so gang, thank you all for a great year here on "the last word."